Tuesday, July 6, 2010

sing a song of White Rock!!

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Our six months of Spring, may finally be over! Today, the sky is a vibrant shade of blue. A walk down Marine drive is an assault to the senses. There is an abundance of young flesh on display. Young people with firm bodies, everyone in a bathing suit. The air is scented with salt from the sea, fish and chips, vinegar and ketchup, and coconut oil sunscreen. Everyone is carrying a cup or cone of gelato, or ice cream, or a cardboard tray of fish and chips. Families are out, and every picnic table on the beach is taken.

I had a lovely lunch at Slainte by the Pier, and took a walk down to East Beach, to procure an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie from Watts Cooking. I walked back home along the promenade, beachside, and took a minute to remember why I chose to make this community my home...

Happy Summer...long may it be!!

Sunday at The Four Seasons

Print Friendly and PDF To say that ' Summer' is a little late coming to the West Coast...is indeed an understatement. We have been back in Canada for a week now, and every day has been grey and gloomy. Combined with a case of Jet Lag, that has seen us falling asleep at 7 pm, and wide awake at 4 am...I am longing for another vacation! This Sunday, we decided to have a White Spot breakfast, a trip to the farmers market to replenish an almost completely empty refrigerator crisper drawer, a trip into Vancouver for a little shopping, and a late lunch at The Four Seasons.

White Spot was my hangout this week, the week of my return from Italy. The P-Man's mom and dad were visiting, and to them, a vacation is not a vacation without a breakfast out! My grocery situation was quite sad, and with the grogginess associated with the jet lag, grocery shopping was the last thing I felt like doing! My usual breakfast at White Spot is something called the 'Nat's Junior'. I started eating it when I was starting to lose my weight on Weight Watchers. It is a smaller version of the regular artery clogging restaurant breakfast, with a couple of substitutions. It consists of: 1 egg, poached soft. 1 slice of dry multi grain toast. 2 slices of crisp bacon. Grilled tomatoes. black coffee. If you eat breakfast out as often as I do... this one is practically guilt-free.

The farmers market was our next stop, and it looked great! Lots of fresh fruit, and greens of every description. It was easy to fill up my bag. I am looking forward to doing some cooking on my days off , this week.

We dropped off the farmers market treasures at home, and headed into the city. Once there, we made a stop at Siegel's Bagels for some bagels and smoked meat, and some lite veggie cream cheese...mmmmm. After a couple of hours of 'Retail Therapy'...on the rainy, windy day, we headed to The Four Seasons Hotel's Yew Restaurant for lunch.

I am not a big brunch fan. I am one of those people who likes to eat breakfast, as soon as my eyes are open in the morning. The idea of being up for hours, and THEN eating a sort of breakfast meal seems just plain WEIRD!!! I think I have mentioned before in this blog, that Yew Restaurant went through a fairly substantial renovation several years ago. I feel that the reno was a complete success...because I feel so comfortable there. The restaurant is divided into zones that work no matter what size group you are with, or what kind of mood you are in. We chose to eat in the bar/lounge area, but at one of the high top tables, as we were going to eat a meal. These tables are comfortable, and have a casual feel, with a great view of the whole restaurant. I love to watch people. The service is extremely attentive, without being 'suck-uppy.' Our server was friendly and normal...and he let us know that all bottles of wine were half price on Sundays. We ordered a bottle of New Zealand Sauvingnon Blanc...Babich...and had a look at the menu. The brunch menu was changed a month or so ago...so we had a good look. As we were sipping our delicious crisp, fruity wine, a little plate of sugar doughnuts with a dish of raspberry sauce arrived! I was getting a VERY good feeling about the rest of our meal! They were cake doughnuts, slightly warm, and not too sweet. The sauce was sweet, but tart as well. We looked, we dipped, we ate them up! The menu provided several options. For 27$, you could choose a starter, a main, and a trio of desserts...or you could do a la carte. I decided to have the fresh halibut. It came in a beautiful shallow square white bowl. There was a smear of electric green pesto directly above a gorgeous white piece of piping hot fish, that was resting on sliced fingerling potatoes, pieces of barely tender asparagus, and fresh green peas. The fish had a light crust of grainy Dijon mustard and horseradish, that was startling in it's sharpness. To my surprise, it complemented absolutely every other flavour in the dish. It was quite simply, one of the finest fish dishes I have EVER eaten. The P-Man chose the bison meatballs with garganelli pasta in a crushed tomato sauce, with blue cheese. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the sauce was fresh and rich...the tomatoes tasted almost smoky, and the meatballs were tender and moist. The blue cheese was a strong confident flavour, that turned the dish from something ordinary, into something with strength and cohesion. We finished our wine, and ordered some coffee. As the desserts were described as 'small '...I decided to try the creme brulee with grilled pineapple. It was delicious. A perfectly sized little pot, containing a rich mixture, with a lightly brulee'd top, with tart and sweet, warm pineapple. You could taste the real vanilla, and the fresh eggs and cream. It was a sweet ending to a wonderful dining experience. I think the tendency is, to assume that restaurants in hotels are all overpriced, with extremely ordinary food. In my opinion, Yew, is an exception. This restaurant is one of my favorites. The food, the atmosphere, the wine list... I think they got it right. This meal absolutely MADE my weekend.

You should go...